Isaiah 58-59

Isaiah 58
1-14 False and True Worship

1-5 Day after day my people go through the ritual of worship, while serving their own interests – oppressing their workers and quarreling even as they fast. Is this what you call a fast?
6-9 This is the fast I choose: To free the unjustly imprisoned, share your food with the hungry, bring the homeless into your house, clothe the naked. Then you will receive light, healing and protection, and I will answer when you call. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. There God the Son echoes these injunctions. In Matthew 7:21-29, he declares that not every one who calls on his name will be part of his kingdom, but those who do his will. And in Matthew 25:31-46 he tells his disciples how important it is to care for the less fortunate.
10-12 If you get rid of evil speaking and help the needy, your light will shine again, and the LORD will guide you, quench your thirst and strengthen your bones, and you will be known for restoring your heritage.
13-14 If you stop trampling the sabbath and pursuing your own interests on my holy day, then you will take delight in the LORD, and I will restore your heritage as my people.

Isaiah 59
1-21 Injustice and Oppression to Be Punished

1-2 "The LORD's hand is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. Rather, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear."
3-8 You kill, cheat, and lie; your courts are unjust; you poison everything around you, working iniquity, shedding innocent blood, knowing nothing of peace or justice. Verses 7 and 8 of this passage, "Their feet run to evil...they rush to shed innocent blood..." are quoted by Paul in Romans 3:15-17, which starts back in verse 10 with the words, "There is none righteous, no not one." Paul tells us here that we are all sinners – Jews and Gentiles alike – so we should be careful in being too judgmental of Isaiah's listeners, for "we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
9-11 We look for justice and righteousness, but there is none; we grope and stumble and moan, but there is no salvation.
12-15 Our sins testify against us; we know we have turned away from God; there is no truth in the public square.
16-17 The LORD saw this and saw there was no one to intervene, so he put on a breastplate of righteousness, a helmet of salvation, and garments of vengeance. This sounds familiar, doesn't it? In Ephesians 6:10-18 we are told to wear the breastplate and the helmet, but the garments of vengeance are exclusively God's.
18-19 He will repay his adversaries on the coastlands: He will come ashore like a pent-up stream, and they will fear his name and his glory. The specifics of the "coastlands" here is a reminder that this is both an immediate justice for his people and a prophecy of the one who will come to bestow righteousness and salvation on the faithful.
20-21 He will come to Zion as Redeemer for those who turn from sin. He will make an everlasting covenant with them.